02.19.13 | By
Vaccines work. Here's a great graphic that shows how vaccines have helped reduce the U.S. incidence of some of the awful killer diseases of history. Note particularly that there've been no reported U.S. cases of diphtheria, polio and small pox. There is perhaps no greater example of the power of vaccines and importance of medical research and development than the role vaccines have played in reducing the threat of these killer diseases.
With so many once deadly diseases eliminated or dramatically reduced as health threats, the challenge we all face is complacency and forgetfulness: complacency about these diseases and our ability to keep them under control; forgetfulness of the time when diseases like polio and small pox killed far too many people.
With nearly 300 new vaccines now in development, America's biopharmaceutical research industry is helping in the fight against this complacency and forgetfulness.